Bluffing-Short Story Summary

"Still others commit all sorts of evil deeds, claiming karma doesn't exist. They erroneously maintain that since everything is empty, committing evil isn't wrong. Such persons fall into a hell of endless darkness with no hope of release. Those who are wise, hold no such conception"(Bodhidharma).

In the short stories Bluffing by Gail Helgason and He-y, Come on Ou-t! by Shinichi Hoshi, both the protagonists experience bad karma. In the start, the characters take selfish actions without any second thoughts.

Following that, they continue their actions with inconsiderate and naive behaviour, not even acknowledging their mistakes.

As a result, the character's actions backfire and cause them big problems. Overall, the protagonists experience that taking bad and inconsiderate action will cause one even bigger consequences in life.

To start off, in both texts the characters are behaving very selfishly, only considering their own benefits, ignoring other's wants and needs or any possible bad outcomes. Firstly, in Bluffing the main character Gabriella proposes a hike to Jasper Lake to introduce the subject of the lease to her boyfriend, Liam.

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On their way, they meet two young men who are also heading up to the lake. Liam wants to be alone with Gabriella, so to get rid of the two young hikers he lies and tells them that they are turning back themselves, as they "came across an elk carcass by the lake. [And that] some grizzly had himself a dandy breakfast" (Helgason 52).

Liam responded in only his own interest as he convinced the two hikers to turn around and end their hike so that he can have a private lunch at the lake with Gabriella.

This is very similar to the short story He-y come on ou-t! where the citizens of the village commit to unmindful actions for their own personal benefits.

In this text, an important shrine is destroyed by a landslide causing the Villagers to look for the shrine's original location to rebuild a new one. However, as they reach the old shrine's location they find a very large hole in the ground. Quickly the hole became a way for easy disposal of nuclear waste which would benefit the villagers in return. The villagers "concentrated solely on producing one thing after another.

Everyone disliked thinking about the eventual consequences"( Hoshi 3). After scientists found out that the hole is five thousand metres deep, all waste, such as old documents, the bodies of animals used in experiments, and even old diaries are carelessly thrown into this hole without thinking twice where all this waste would go or what problems it could cause.

Therefore, in each of the stories, the characters act very greedily and egotistical, doing as they please to benefit themselves.

Next, in both texts, the characters act very naive and inconsiderately, showing that they have not learned from their mistakes. To begin with the text Bluffing, Liam and Gabriella encounter a bear and as Liam starts "running away as fast as he could" (Helgason 53), leaving Gabriella behind, the bear starts chasing him.

Even after Liam is left hospitalized by the bear, he continues to lie, claiming that he "wasn't trying to run away up there," and that he "meant for the bear to come after [him] instead of [her]" (Helgason 54). Similarly, in He-y come on ou-t! a workman in this story is also completely naive and clueless.

The workman hears a voice, but simply can't seem to see anyone in sight and ignores the shout, telling himself that it is his imagination. Then "a small pebble skimmed by him and fell on past. The man, however, was gazing in idle reverie at the city's skyline growing ever more beautiful, and he failed to notice" (Hoshi 3).

This pebble is a sign of karma coming back for the villagers, which the workman completely dismissed. It is evident that both characters are very naive and learn nothing from their mistakes nor do they see the consequences of their actions.

Finally, in both Bluffing" and "He-y come on ou-t the characters' thoughtless actions backfire and cause consequences. After Liam lies about sighting a bear down by the lake to make the other hikers leave, he truthfully encounters a bear without "a climbing tree within reach" (Helgason 53).

He gets attacked so severely that he is hospitalized. Clearly, Liam's lie backfires after he repeatedly makes self-centered decisions by trying to run away and leave Gabriella behind. Likewise, in He-y come on ou-t! the villagers' actions also backfire. At the beginning of the story when the hole is discovered, a young man threw a pebble into it, yelling "hey come on out".

Soon after that, the trashing of the hole began as the villagers used it to get rid of their difficulties and profit themselves. In the end, a workman hears a voice shout " 'He y, come on ou t!' But, in the sky to which he lifted his gaze there was nothing at all" (Hoshi 3).

Those exact same words and the pebble skimming by him foreshadows the negative consequences the villagers are soon to experience due to their careless disposal. Therefore, both characters are experiencing consequences for their selfish actions.

To conclude, one's actions can be self-harmful when making selfish and egotistic decisions. Both characters in these texts have acted selfishly, made inconsiderate decisions that caused negative consequences, and yet are too naive to even acknowledge their mistakes.

Their actions are definitely proven to be self-defeating as they have an adverse effect to come back around. As Wayne Dyer once said, it truly is genuine that "how people treat you is their karma; [however] how you react is yours".

References

• Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
• The DONG-A ILBO